Water Gardening: If you build it… they will come!, 0 by Mrs_Ed

Mrs_Ed wrote:
Hi there.

Yes that is a Blue Jay. I don't get Eastern Bluebirds here in town.

My pond is about 6' x 9'. It is not very deep, at its deepest point only about 22". I use a 500 watt pond heater in the winter to keep it open for the birds as well as to let out the gasses.

I built the pond in two stages. The pond one year and the stream the next year. I can say without a doubt that this was a BAD idea.

Year one info is on my blog (reverse order): http://davesgarden.com/community/blogs/t/Mrs_Ed/11918/

The short version is that we dug the hole ourselves and bought liner from a local store. I had access to lots of rock and bought some smaller rock for the bottom of the pond. Although I did not buy their equipment, I believe in the Aquascape system, which lines the bottom with rock. Some debate on this, but works for me.

So, having built that pond, the next year we added the stream. Since I had use the soil from the pond hole previously dug somewhere else, I had to bring in bagged dirt to elevate the stream. We bought Atlantic Pond supply equipment, including skimmer, waterfall box, pump and checkvalve. The major problem with the two-stage approach was attaching the pond liner to the skimmer box as well as the stream liner to the pond liner. There is special silicone and tape for doing this, but it was not "fun". I'd definitely not do it this way again.

The pond is still a work in progress because I ran out of rock. But here is a picture from June.